During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, with the gradual development of fishing technology, aquatic organisms gradually entered people's field of vision, especially fish, which were often active on the table. Today, I will lead you to the table of the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period to see the fish we ate in those years.
As we all know, the "Book of Poetry" is a relatively early collection of poetry in China, but its other identity, everyone does not know much, this collection of poems spanning thousands of years actually records not only the poetry of the two-week period, but also many different aquatic animals such as bream, carp, mussels, clams and so on.
As early as the Western Zhou Dynasty, carp became a must-have delicacy for the nobility. There are clouds in the Book of Poetry, "Drink the royal friends, the turtle carp", the carp mentioned here refers to a dish that is now very famous, raw carp fillet. During the reign of King Xuan of Zhou, the Western Zhou general Yin Jifu, who defeated the Foxes, once used a carp to feast on his comrades. Since then, carp has become the first choice of banquets and gifts for the nobles. It even left a beautiful comment in the "Book of Poetry" that "it eats fish, and it will be the carp of the river".
Sima Qian once recorded a story about Confucius in the Records of History. According to legend, on the day Confucius's wife gave birth to a child, Lu Zhaogong once gave Confucius several carps, so Confucius's eldest son was named Kong carp. However, carp is not necessarily the best to give to maternity fish, and crucian carp is better.
The nobles of the Chu state liked to eat fried crucian carp, and this dish appeared in the poetry of the Chu state, which means fried crucian carp. At that time, because there was no refrigerator to store meat such as fish, the Chu people invented the ice book to ensure the deliciousness of the fish. Interestingly, there are two vassal states of the Chu state whose names are also more interesting, one called the Squid Kingdom and the other called the Fish Kingdom, both of which were once subordinate to the Yong Kingdom. In particular, the Fish State also helped the Yong State to expel the Chu State, and later the Yong State was destroyed, so it was incorporated into the Chu State together with the Squid State. I don't know, when the King of Chu hears these two monarchs coming together, will he be hungry for squid silk.
Some people like to eat fish, then naturally some people like to buy fish. During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, dry fish stores were set up in the markets of various countries to buy and sell fish and aquatic products. Mencius once said to King Hui of Wei that "if you do not enter the pond, the fish and turtles will not be able to eat", which means to advise king Hui not to over-develop and sell fish, resulting in the complete depletion of fish resources.
The same people who like to eat fish, but there are many people with different fates. Some people died because they liked to eat fish, such as Wu Wangyuan. Legend has it that wu guo has a famous chef who makes fish, named Taihe Gong, who once passed on his cooking skills to Zhuanzhu, but Zhuanzhu used this cooking skill to commit the crime of assassinating the monarch, and his final fate was just like Tian Qilang in "Liaozhai", becoming a poor man who returned the favor of the rich with his life.
Some people are famous for their fish. Lu Guo Xiangguo GongYi Xiu especially likes to eat fish, so those who like to give gifts especially like to send fish to him, but Gong Yi Hugh not only does not accept it, but also says such a sentence, "Once I am addicted to fish and start using power for personal gain, I will inevitably be thrown into prison, and you will certainly never send fish to me again." A remark turned out to be a famous anti-corruption sentence.
Because the fish is delicious and the meaning behind it is very profound, people during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods often named fish or fish organs. For example, the above-mentioned zhuanzhu, also known as the squid set, the word for 鱄 here is the meaning of the fish. There are also several ministers at the end of the Song Dynasty, such as Yushi and Yufu, who are also named after fish.
In addition to fish, river mussels and clams were also delicacies on people's tables at that time. During the Warring States period, Su Dai once used the story of the quarrel between the sandpipers and clams to advise King Huiwen of Zhao not to attack the State of Yan, to avoid being secretly attacked by other countries such as the State of Qin and other countries, and to seize the benefits of the fisherman. There are also more stories about clams, which are delicious and are also known as Xi Shi tongue. Legend has it that after the destruction of the Kingdom of Wu, the Queen of Yue, fearing that she would spoil Xi Shi, sank Xi Shi into the river, and her tongue turned into a clam.
However, this bloody legend cannot be taken seriously. The historical Queen Yue was a very loyal woman. At that time, when Gou Jian was defeated, he once wanted to kill the queen and then commit suicide, but later it was the persuasion of Wen Shu that made Gou Jian and his wife determined to come to the Wu kingdom as prisoners. After all kinds of humiliations, after returning to the Kingdom of Yue, the queen still did not change her mind, personally knitting cloth, and also helping the King of Yue train beautiful women such as Xi Shi, is a good queen hidden behind history, because she has no name, so in the TV series about Wu Yue's hegemony, she is named Yayu, which means like the blue fish in the waterhole of Yueguo, elegant and beautiful, Chuchu moving.
Although fish are delicious, their fate is not good, especially carp, which can only be watched and eaten by people for a lifetime, and cannot be liberated. Now there is a buzzword called koi, which means that people who break through the bad status quo will one day jump the dragon gate and can also have a day of climbing to a high place. However, if a carp becomes a dragon, it is no longer a carp, and even if it has a wealth, its state of mind will no longer be the same as before. Looking at the historical figures behind the animal stories we choose in the animal world, we need to see not only their experience on the road to success or failure, but also what they gain or lose, which is the true meaning of our learning of historical stories.